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The Spring North American Championships

by Phillip Alder

The Spring Nationals begin on March 10 in Reno, NV. The premier event is the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams, and we can hope it is as exciting as last year's event in New Orleans. There, the defending champions, Nick Nickell, Ralph Katz, Bobby Levin, Steve Weinstein, Jeff Meckstroth and Eric Rodwell, lost in the Round of 32 to Gaylor Kasle, Larry Kozlove, and Bartosz Chmurski and Piotr Tomczynski from Poland, and Berend Vandenbos and Joris Van Lankveld from the Netherlands. The Kasle team lost in the next round to John Diamond, Brian Platnick, Eric Greco, Geoff Hampson, Marc Jacobus and Eddie Wold. Diamond went on to reach the final, which will be featured in a future article. There was an amazing match in the quarterfinals between Monaco (Pierre Zimmermann, Franck Multon, Geir Helgemo, Tor Helness, Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes) and Team Assael (Mustafa Cem Tokay from Turkey, Antonio Sementa from Italy, and Josef Piekarek and Alexander Smirnov from Germany). Monaco entered the final session of 15 boards ahead by 40 international match points. Its two pairs, Fantoni-Nunes and Helgemo-Helness, were world ranked one, two, six and ten, respectively. After Monaco gained 3 imps over the first two boards, Fantoni-Nunes bid six notrump with these hands:

West East ‰ 5 3 2 ‰ A K 8 4 Š Q 5 3 Š A 7 2 ‹ K J 5 ‹ A Q 2 Œ A 8 7 4 Œ K Q 3

Clubs were 3-3 and South had the heart king, so it went down only one. However, that was 11 imps to Assael , lowering the deficit to 32 imps. Over the next four boards, Assael gained another 8 imps. Then came Board 53, which is on the next page.

1 North Dlr: South ‰ Q 9 7 2 Vul: Both Š A J 3 2 ‹ 8 5 2 Œ J 9 West East ‰ J 8 5 3 ‰ 10 4 Š 5 Š K 9 8 6 ‹ A K J 10 9 ‹ Q 4 3 Œ 10 7 3 Œ Q 5 4 2 South ‰ A K 6 Š Q 10 7 4 ‹ 7 6 Œ A K 8 6 Open Room: West North East South Tokay Helness Sementa Helgemo 1NT Pass 2Œ Pass 2Š Pass 4Š All Pass

Closed Room: West North East South Nunes Piekarek Fantoni Smirnov 1Œ (a) 1‹ 1‰ (b) 2‹ 4Š Pass Pass Pass (a) Natural or strong with 18-plus points or at least eight winners (one notrump would have shown 13- 15 points) (b) Length in both majors and positive values

At both tables, West started the defense with three rounds of diamonds, the last being ruffed by South. Helgemo ran the heart ten; Sementa won and shifted to the club five. Declarer won with his ace and made the fatal error of continuing with a low heart; he needed to retain dummy's honors. After West discarded a diamond, South won with the ace, played a heart to his queen, cashed his top spades, and played a spade to the queen. Now he went down two because East ruffed and returned the club queen to squash dummy's jack. In the Closed Room, Smirnov ran the heart queen at trick four, which East ducked. Now South continued correctly with the heart ten. East won and returned the spade four. Declarer took the trick with his ace, drew the missing trumps (West threw two diamonds and one club), and returned a spade to his king to give the position on the next page.

2 North ‰ Q 9 Š – ‹ – Œ J 9 West East ‰ J 8 ‰ – Š – Š – ‹ – ‹ – Œ 10 7 Œ Q 5 4 2 South ‰ 6 Š – ‹ – Œ A K 8 South led his spade to dummy's queen, then ran the club jack when East did not cover. (If East had cov- ered, South would have won and cashed his other high club, which would have dropped West's ten.) Plus 200 and plus 620 gave Assael 13 imps on the board. The Monaco lead was down to 11. Assael gained 1 imp on the next two deals, which brought up Board 56: North Dlr: East ‰ 10 9 2 Vul: Both Š J 8 7 5 2 ‹ 10 Œ 9 5 4 2 West East ‰ A Q 6 ‰ J 8 7 5 3 Š K 4 Š – ‹ 4 ‹ Q J 8 7 6 5 3 2 Œ K Q J 10 8 7 3 Œ – South ‰ K 4 Š A Q 10 9 6 3 ‹ A K 9 Œ A 6 Open Room: West North East South Tokay Helness Sementa Helgemo 4‹ 4Š Pass Pass 4‰ Dble 5Œ Pass 5‹ Dble Pass Pass Pass If West had passed over South's first double, the contract probably would have made for plus 790. Against five diamonds doubled, South cashed his two top diamonds, then tried to cash the heart ace. East ruffed, drew South's last trump, and led a spade to dummy's queen, on which North played his deuce . He should have dropped the nine or ten, which would have given East the losing option of lead- ing his jack to try to pin North's initial ten-nine-doubleton. Now, though, East had only one winning possibility. East pitched a spade on the heart king, and led the club king. After North played low, East ruffed and led a low spade. When the king appeared, Sementa claimed his contract for plus 750. At double-dummy, to defeat the contract, Helgemo had to lead anything but a diamond. Then he would have taken three trump tricks.

3 North Dlr: East ‰ 10 9 2 Vul: Both Š J 8 7 5 2 ‹ 10 Œ 9 5 4 2 West East ‰ A Q 6 ‰ J 8 7 5 3 Š K 4 Š – ‹ 4 ‹ Q J 8 7 6 5 3 2 Œ K Q J 10 8 7 3 Œ – South ‰ K 4 Š A Q 10 9 6 3 ‹ A K 9 Œ A 6 Closed Room: West North East South Nunes Piekarek Fantoni Smirnov 4‹ Dble Pass 4Š Pass 4NT (a) Pass 5Œ (b) Pass 5Š Pass Pass Pass (a) Roman Key Card Blackwood (b) 0 or 3 key cards

It is surprising that Fantoni did not bid four spades over four hearts. Five hearts went down two, declarer losing two spades, one heart and one club. But plus 750 and minus 100 gave Assael 11 imps on the board and the lead by 1. Two deals later, Assael 's lead had risen to 5 imps, when the decisive board, number 59 of 60, was played.

4 North Dlr: North ‰ K 9 6 5 3 Vul: Both Š 6 ‹ A 7 5 4 Œ 8 7 3 West East ‰ 4 ‰ Q 10 7 2 Š K 10 9 Š Q 7 5 4 ‹ K Q 10 6 2 ‹ J 9 3 Œ A 9 6 2 Œ 10 4 South ‰ A J 8 Š A J 8 3 2 ‹ 8 Œ K Q J 5 Open Room: West North East South Tokay Helness Sementa Helgemo Pass Pass 1Š Pass 1‰ Pass 2Œ Pass Pass Pass

Against this contract, Tokay led a textbook trump, trying to cut down the heart ruffs in the dummy. (Note that starting with the ace and another club would not have defeated the contract either.) Helgemo won with his king, cashed the heart ace, ruffed a heart in the dummy, led a spade to his ace, ruffed another heart, and tried to cash the spade king. West ruffed and shifted to the diamond king. However, that was no problem, because declarer won with dummy's ace, ruffed a diamond, and drove out the club ace. South had to take one more trump trick to make his contract.

Closed Room: West North East South Nunes Piekarek Fantoni Smirnov Pass Pass 1Š 2‹ Pass Pass Dble Pass 3‰ Pass 4‰ Pass Pass Pass

I think most players would overcall with that West hand. North chose not to make a light negative double (his singleton heart was a big minus), but when South reopened the auction with a takeout double indicating short diamonds, North caught up by jumping to three spades, which South raised to game. East led the diamond three. North won with his ace and played a club to the king, which West ducked when his partner signaled a doubleton. Now, though, declarer adopted a complete crossruff: heart ace, heart ruff, diamond ruff, heart ruff, diamond ruff, heart ruff (West discarded a club), and a diamond ruff with the spade ace. That was the first nine tricks in and the trump king was still in declarer's hand. Minus 90 and plus 620 gave Assael 11 imps and the match by 136 imps to 123 – a wonder- ful fight back.